The clarion. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1883-1888, 1887-02-02


what did he saya 4The only true and per
feet religion is Christianity" Isaac Newton,
the leading philosopher Of his time-what did /
he sayf That man surrendering to L
this delusion of the Christian re-
hgion, crying out: sThe sublimest /
philosophy on earth Is the phil
osophy of the Gospel" David Brewster, at |
the pronunciation OF whose name every /
scientist the world over bows his head, |
David Brewster saying: 20, this religion |
has been great light to me, a very |
great Light all my days" President Theirs, /
the great French statesman, acknowl- |
edging that he prayed when he said: Il /
invoke the Lord God in whom 1 am glad to |
believe David Livingstone able TO conquer |
the lion, able to conquer the panther, able to |
conquer the savage, yet conquered by this |
deIusion this hallucination, this great swindle |
OF the ages, 50 when they find him dead they |
find him on his knees William Z Gladstone, |
the strongest intellect In England to-day, |
unable to resist this chinera, this faIlacy, |
this delusion Of the Christian religion, goes to
the house Of God every Sabbath, and often, |
at the invitation Of the rector, reads the |
prayers to the people. o, if those mighty in |
telleets are overborne by this delusion, what |
chance Is there for you and for met
Beside that, have noticed that first rate |
infidels cannot be depended on for steadfast- |
ness in the proclamation of their sentiments. |
Goethe, leading skeptic, was so wrought
upon by this Christianity that in weak mo
ment he cried out: my belief in the Bible
has saved me in my literary and moral life. 4"
Rousseau, one of the most eloquent cham
pions Of infidelity, spending his whole life
warning against Christianity, cries out: "The
majesty of the Scriptures amazes me-" Alta
| mont the notorious infidel. one would think
he would have been safe against this delusion
Of the Christian religion. Oh, no. After
| talking against Christianity all his days in
| his last hours he cried out: "Oh, Thou bias
phemed but most indulgent Lord God, hell
itself is refuge, if it hide me from Thy
| frowni" Voltaire, the most talented
| infidel the world ever saw, writing $50
| publications, and the most of them spite
| full against Christianity, himself the
| most notorious hbertine of she century
one would have thought he could have been
| depended upon for steadfastness in the advo-
| cacy of infidelity and in the war against this
| terrible chimera, this delusion of the Gospel
| But no; in his last hour he asks for Christian
| burial, and asks that they give him the sacra-
| ment of the Lord Jesus Christ Why, you
| cannot depend upon these first rate infidels-
you cannot depend upon their power to resist
| this great deusion of Christianity. Thomas
| Paine, the god of modern skeptics, his birth
| day celebrated in New York and Boston with
| great enthusiasm-Thomas Paine, the para
| gon of Bible haters; Thomas Paine, about
| whom his brother infidel William Carver
| wrote, in letter which / have at my house,
| saying that he drank quart of rum day
| and was too mean and too dishonest to paw
| for it, Thomas Paine, the adored of modern in
| fidelity; Thomas Paine, who stole another
| mans wife in England and brought her to
| this land; Thomas Paine, who SO squalid
/ and so loathsome and so drunken and so
profigate and so beastly in his habits, some
| times picked out of the ditch, sometimes to
| filthy to be picked out; Thomas Paine-one
| would have thought that he could have been
1 depended ON for steadfastness against this
| great delusion But no. In his dying hour
| he begs the Lord Jesus Christ for mercy.
Powerful delusion, all conquering delusion,
| earthquaking delusion of the Christian re-
| ligion. Yea. it goes on, it is SO impairment,
| and it is so overbearing, this chimera of the
gospel that having conquered the great pict-
| ure galleries of the world, the old masters
| and the young masters, as l showed in a
| former sermon, it is not satisfied until it has
| conquered the music of the world. Look over
the programme of that magnificent musical
festival a few years ago in New York and see
what were the great performances, and learn
that the greatest of all the subjects were relig-
three thousand voices were accompanied with
| a vast number of instruments? Israel in
| Egypt" Yes, Beethoven deluded until he wrote
| the high mass in ma jor. Haydn deluded with
| this religion until he wrote the Creation"
| Handel deludcd until he wrote the oratorios
of "Jephthah" and esther and "Saul" and
Israel in Egypt" and the Messiah" On the
closing night 5000 deluded people singing of
| a delusion TO eight thousand deluded hearers.
Yes, this chimera of the gospel is not salts
fled until it goes on and builds Itself into the
most permanent architecture, SO it seems as
if the world is never gong to get rid of it.
What are some of the finest buildings in the
worlds st. PauIs, st. Peters, the churches
and cathedrals of all Christendom. Yes, this
impertinence of the gospel, this vast delusion
is not satisfied until it projects itself, and in
one year gives, contributes, SC, $50 900
| to foreign missions, the work of which
| is to make ounces and fools on the
other side of the world-people we have
never seen. Deluded doctors-220 physicians
meeting week by week in London, in the
Union Medical Prayer circle, to worship God.
| Deluded lawyers-the late Lord Cairns, the
highest Legal authority in England, the ex-
adviser of the throne, spending his vacation
in preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ to the
poor people of Scotland; Frederick T. Ere
| United States, an old fashioned evangelical
Christian, an elder in the Reformed church;
John Bright, a deluded Quaker; Henry
Wilson, the vice president of the Unit
| ed States, dying deluded Method
list or Congregationalist Earl OF Kintore,
dying deluded Presbyterian. The canni-
balls in South sea, the bushmen of Terra del
Fuego, the wild men of Australia, putting
down the knives of their cruelty, and cloth
ing themselves in decent apparel--all under
the power of this delusion Judson and
Doty, and Abel and Campbell and VIII
liams and the 3, 600 missionaries of the cross,
turning their backs on home and civilization
and comfort and going out amid the squalor
of heathenism to relieve it, to save it, to help
it, toiling until they dropped into their
graves, dying with no earthly comfort about
them, and going into graves with no appro-
pirate epitaph, when they might have lived
in this country, and lived for themselves,
and lived luxuriously, and been at last put
into brilliant sepulchre. What delusion.
Yea, this delusion of Christian religion
shows itself in the fact that it goes to those
who are in trouble. Now, it is bad enough
to cheat a man when he is well and when he
is prosperous; but this religion comes to a
man when he is sick, and says: aYou will be
well again after a while; you are going into
land where there are no coughs and no pleuri-
sizes and no consumptions and no languishing;
take courage and bear up" YEA this awful
chimera Of the gospel comes to the poor and
1t says to them: "You are on your way to
vast estates and to dividends always declar-
able" This delusion of Christianity comes
to the bereft, and it talks of reunion before
the throne and of the cessation of all sorrow.
And then TO show that this delusion will stop
at absolutely nothing, it goes to the dying
bed and fills the man with authorizations.
How much better it would be for him to have
him die without any more hope than swine
and rats and snakes. That Is all Nothing
more left of him. He will never know any
thing again. Shovel him underi
The soul is only superior part of the body,
and when the body disintegrates the soul dis
integrates. Annihilation, vacancy, everlast-
ing blank, obliteration- Why not present all
that beautiful doctrine to the dying. instead
of coming with this hoax, this swindle of the
Christian religion, and filing the dying man
with anticipations of another life until some
in the last hour have clapped their hands. and
some have shouted, and some have sung, and
some have been so overwrought with joy they
could only look ecstatic. Palace gates open
ing, they thought. diamonded coronets flash
ing, hands beckoning, orchestras sounding
Little children dying, actually believing thev
saw their departed parents, so that. although
the little children had been so weak and
feeble and sick for weeks, they could not turn
on Their dying pillow, at the last, in a parox-
ysm OF rapture uncomfortable, they sprang to
their feet and shouted: Mother, catch me.
/ am cominglr
And to show the immensely Of this delusion.
this awful swindle Of the Gospel of Jesus
Christ, open hospital and bring into that
hospital the deathbeds of great many Chris